Switched to blueberries now. Picked 12 cups in 2.5 hours. Kind of a downer after getting 20+ lbs of salmonberries in the same time. Funny how there are lots of blueberries where I went but no berries on the plants in the forest behind our house. Maybe they will show later. 80 degrees today and way too hot for me. Jeff and I fished for kings from 4a to 6a for nada. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Salmon Everywhere
Kurt and I headed out the 4th to fish the tip of Admiralty as I’d heard some cohos were being caught. We left at 4 am and were fishing about 445 on a flat calm morning all by ourselves. We had continuous action bringing home 3 coho and 6 pinks and we released a few pinks and lost several fish. The first coho was about 14 lbs. Fed the whole crowd at Jeff and Teri’s 4th party with fish to spare. There were pink salmon, mostly, jumping as far as you could see in any direction. Funny how it seems all we hear about are poor salmon returns, etc and we are looking at yet another banner year this year, I think. And by banner, I mean runs as big as they’ve ever been in some areas since fishing began in the late 1800’s. We’ll see. Today, I got around to some chores. I figured out how to replace Sara’s van’s motorized window crank with a manual one after the 2nd motor went kaput. Took a couple hours of figuring it out but got it to work and now we’ll do the passenger side, too. Also getting the house back together after repairing for rot in the spring. I had it replaced from studs, insulation, sheathing and tar paper, and just needed to replace the siding. I bought it on Friday and cut it today and Sara is painting it so should get it up soon. 70+ degrees today and near 80 yesterday. What a summer.
Salmon berries waning
Picked for 2 hours last night and got about 7 lbs of berries. Tried a new spot as it looked like someone may have been in the honey hole. The new spot was not as good as the earlier ones. Few berry bushes with fewer berries and berries getting alot softer, although still sweet. Found out that stinging nettles look a lot like salmon berries. Got stung on my hands, which are still numb this morning. Also learned I should let the berries strain overnight. After straining off about a pint of juice from the 7 lbs in the usual fashion last night as I’d done before vac packing, I put this batch of berries in the fridge, instead of vac packing and freezing, as Sara wants to make something with them and rhubarb for the 4th of July party at Jeff’s. This morning there was another pint of juice under the strainer.
Blueberries Already
Went with Laura to pick blueberries last night. This is the earliest I’ve ever picked blue berries by at least a month. Berries were abundant. Picked 8 cups worth and Laura got about the same or more, I think. Will take the berry picker rake next time, as it’s much more efficient it seems for the blue berries. Still have blue fingers today. A little rain then more warm weather on the way. Losing the king salmon to the seal still stings today!
Even bigger Losers
As a postscript to the last blog entry, Jeff sent the following:”It wasn’t over yet. After I dropped you off the net blew out of the boat (how I don’t know) and 3 yes 3 cars ran it over before I could get it. HOW do 3 cars run over a big net in the middle of the road? Wouldn’t you think they would drive around it!”
Biggest Loser
So, my friend Ben tells me he caught 3 kings on a yellow coho spoon on a flat line behind his boat. Jeff calls and says lets go fishing in the morning. I say okay. I need to be at work at 7. I fix two of the yellow coho spoons up from my old troll gear, and Jeff picks me up at 4am. At 430 am, Jeff gets a bump on his gear, and while I look at his rod, there goes mine. A nice king on the yellow spoon with an 8 oz sinker and 20 pulls of line out. We land the king. Nice bright one. About 15 lbs or so. I’m bellowing with joy. We plan a barbecue at our house for Thursday as everyone has the Friday holiday off. We’re the only ones fishing. We watch another skiff with a couple come in. They catch 2 kings out in the deep where we got ours. At 6:15, Jeff says ready to go? I say let’s fish till 630, which would allow us to troll back to the boat launch. I figure I have to clean the fish anyway, and can get to work at 730 instead and just take a half hour for lunch. As we near the boat launch, there’s a big swirl next to the boat. A big seal is after our king salmon hanging on the stringer over the side. I see the fish is still there, and pull the stringer. Jeff has the boat brush to bang the seal if he can. I pull on the stringer. The seal has the king salmon’s tail. And pulls the line through the gill cover, and slowly sinks with the fish out of sight. I tell Jeff. Even when we catch a fish – which rarely happens, even when everyone else is catching – we can’t get it to the dock. We are such Losers. We reel in. As we trailer up the boat, Jeff says “you’re right. We really are Losers” We ride home in silence. I still made it to work at 7 am.